Sunday, December 22, 2013

Darwin’s Paradox Revisited: Compassion and Evolution

Several years
ago, when I started this blog in 2007, I wrote an article that explored the
term “Darwin’s Paradox”—it’s not just the title of my science fiction thriller Darwin's Paradox released that year by Dragon Moon Press—but
a term coined by scientists to describe
the paradoxical phenomenon exhibited by coral reefs.

Defying The Laws of Thermodynamics

Darwin
described coral reefs as oases in the desert of the ocean. Coral reefs comprise
one of the richest ecosystems on Earth, in apparent violation of the laws of
thermodynamics (high productivity in a low-productivity environment).
Productivity ranges from 50 to 250 times more than the surrounding ocean. How
do they thrive in crystal-clear water, largely devoid of nutrients? Part of the
answer lies in the coral’s efficiency in recycling nutrients like nitrate and
phosphate.

Firstly, the
rough coral surface amplifies water turbulence at a microscopic level,
disrupting the boundary layer that usually settles on objects under water and
lets the coral “hoover” up the sparse nutrients. I stumbled upon a similar
phenomenon during my grad work on temperate streams and published my
serendipitous discovery in the journal Hydrobiologia.
I was researching how periphyton (attached “algae”) colonized submerged glass
slides and observed that the community preferred the edges of the slides
because the micro-turbulence there provided more opportunity for attachment and
nutrition.

Secondly, lots
of corals also function symbiotically with specialized algae(called zooxanthelae), which provide the
coral with food (through photosynthesis) and, in turn, get food from the wastes
created by the coral.

Can the science
of symbiosis teach us about another Darwin’s Paradox?

The Evolution of Compassion

In a September
2013 article in the Jewish World Review,
Boston Globe reporter Jeff Jacoby wrote:

“Charles Darwin
struggled with a paradox: If evolution is a struggle for survival, how could
generosity, compassion, and other altruistic virtues have spread through
natural selection? Darwin could see the clear evolutionary benefit to groups
that inculcated ethical values in their members. Imagine two competing
primitive tribes, equally matched — except that ‘one tribe included a great
number of courageous, sympathetic, and faithful members, who were always ready
to warn each other of danger, [and] to aid and defend each other.’ (Darwin, “The
Descent of Man”). There was little doubt that tribes highly endowed with such
virtues ‘would spread and be victorious over other tribes.’”

“How did any
tribe evolve such ethical qualities in the first place?” asks Jacoby. Brave
individuals who risked their lives for others "would on average perish in
larger numbers than other men." It hardly seemed possible, Darwin
conceded, that, "such virtues … could be increased through natural
selection, that is, by the survival of the fittest." So, how did it…and
why?

Jacoby quotes Sir
Jonathan Sacks, Britain’s Orthodox chief rabbi, who pointed to "the
central drama of civilization: Biological evolution favors individuals,” says
Sacks. “But cultural evolution favors groups.… Selfishness benefits individuals
[only in the short-term and only in a limited way—my comment], but it is [ultimately]
disastrous to groups, and it is only as members of a group that individuals can
survive at all."

Jacoby describes
the vast literature in evolutionary psychology and sociobiology that have
demonstrated humanity’s hard-wired moral capacity. “We are born with an
aptitude for empathy and fairness,” said Jacoby, citing recent neurological
experiments that have demonstrated that an act of generosity triggers a pleasurable
response in the brain.

Abraham
Lincoln summarized it in seven words: “When I do good, I feel good.”Psychologists call it the “helper’s high”.
Neuroscientists and behavioral scientists are demonstrating unequivocally the
benefits of altruism to our health and happiness. Scientists have designed
experiments that actually trace altruism—and the pleasure we gain from it—to
specific regions and systems in the brain. Key studies now provide striking
evidence that our brains are wired for altruism.The Social Brain and the Seat of Compassion

In a study
published in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences (Moll et al, 2006), a team of neuroscientists
lead by Dr. Jordan Grafman, reported that, “when people made the decision to donate to what they felt was a worthy organization,
parts of the midbrain lit up—the same region that controls cravings for food
and sex.” The brain experiences a pleasurable response when we engage in good
deeds that benefit others.

Dr.
Grafman found that the subgenual area in the frontal lobe near the midpoint of
the brain was also strongly active when his study subjects made the decision to
give to charity. The area houses many receptors for oxytocin, a hormone that
promotes social bonding. “The finding suggests that altruism and social relationships
are intimately connected—in part, it may be our reliance on the benefits of
strong interpersonal connections that motivates us to behave unselfishly,”
reports Elizabeth Svoboda in the WallStreet Journal. The team also found that the nucleus accumbens, which contains neurons that release the pleasure
chemical dopamine, was triggered when a person chose to help another.

A
2007 study headed by neuroscientist Scott Huettel and reported in Nature Neuroscience (Tankersley, et al.,
2007) connects altruism to the posterior superior temporal cortex (pSTC), an
area in the upper rear of the brain that lets us perceive goal-directed actions
by someone or something else. Results suggest that altruism depends on, and may
have evolved from, the brain’s ability to perform the low-level perceptual task
of attributing meaning and motive in the actions of others.

"Our
findings are consistent with a theory that some aspects of altruism arose out
of a system for perceiving the intentions and goals of others," said Dr.
Huettel. "To be altruistic, you need to see that the people you’re helping
have goals, and that your actions will have consequences for them."

Research led by Michael Platt reported in Nature Neuroscience in 2012, showed that the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACCg) is an important nexus for the computation of shared experience and social reward. That same year researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York published research in the journal Brain that suggested that the anterior insular cortex is the activity centre of human empathy.

I find it both
interesting and exciting that these studies link different brain regions to
altruistic and compassionate behavior. “There are certain to be multiple mechanism that
contribute to altruism, both in individuals and over evolutionary time,” added
Huettel. This is the nature of the brain, whether we look at intelligence,
motivation or physical characteristics. And I am convinced that we will someday
find that many other areas--if not the entire area--of the brain are involved. Moreover, researchers have shown that engaging--or even witnessing--generous acts can reduce stress, increase immunity (e.g., increased antibody levels), and longevity.

Emiliana
Simon-Thomas, science director for the Greater Good Science Center at the
University of California, Berkeley, explains the chemical activity that happens
in our heads when we commit acts of altruism. “There are multiple reward
systems that have been tied to pleasurable feelings when people help others or
contribute to the well being of the people around them,” she notes. These
reward systems are comprised of three main chemicals that are released when we
commit an act of kindness and feel pleasure: Dopamine, Oxytocin and Serotonin.
According to Simon-Thomas, Dopamine is most closely related to hedonic pleasure
— or pleasure derived from self; oxytocin is tied to more social pleasure —
especially with regard to physical contact; and serotonin is implicated in a
more broad mood state. “All three of these, again, are sort of intersecting and
interacting, and depending on the context that you’re in, represent feelings of
pleasure in different context,” she explains. “All these systems are activating
and parallel, and sort of influencing one another as you go through life.” So
when I do a good deed, I am rewarding myself with a cocktail of wonder drugs
that please me and make me smile.

So,
what I’ve known since I was a child is now proven: doing good deeds is mutually
beneficial to the giver and the receiver.

Altruism in All Beings

The notion that
all aspects of life on this planet—not just humanity—have the capacity to act
altruistically remains controversial—even among professional scientists and
researchers. We are not unique in experiencing or practicing altruism, in acting
altruistically and benefiting from our own altruistic acts. It is however a
matter of perspective, bias and open-mindedness.

Many examples of
altruistic behavior and empathy exist in the rest of the living world on our
planet (see my article here on Alien on altruism in animals).

Nature’s Heroes

Scientists have
been demonstrating for years that cooperation among organisms and communities and the act of pure
altruism (not reciprocal altruism or kin/group selection) is, in fact, more
common in Nature than most of us realize. Valid examples of true altruism in
the wild in many species exist. The key here is “in the wild”—not in captivity,
where inherent behavior is often modified (see my article “The SamaritanParadox Revisited: The Karma Ran Over the Dogma”).

Despite the
overwhelming evidence for altruism in every aspect of our world, some
researchers continue to design experiments and then draw sweeping conclusions
based on animals in captivity to suggest that only humanity possesses the
ability to behave altruistically—and then again only by social-instruction (aka
“the Selfish Gene” of Richard Dawkins vs. the “Social Gene” of Lynn Margulis).

Another example
is the Vervet monkey. This species has evolved a complex community that fosters the
existence of an altruistic individual: the crier monkey. Vervet monkeys give
alarm calls to warn fellow monkeys of the presence of predators, even though by
doing so they attract attention to themselves and increase their chance of
being attacked. Biologists argue that the group that contains a high proportion
of alarm-calling monkeys will have a survival advantage over a group containing
a lower proportion, thereby encouraging this trait to continue and evolve among
individuals. The Vervet monkey crier is Nature’s Hero. And Nature’s heroes are
our real altruists.

de Waal explained
that “evolution favors animals that assist each other if by doing so they
achieve long-term benefits of greater value than the benefits derived from
going it alone and competing with others” (de Waal 2006). The prevalent
phenomenon of altruism is Nature’s answer to the Prisoner’s Dilemma.

“Empathy evolved
in animals as the main ... mechanism for [individually] directed
altruism," said deWaal. And it is empathy—not self-interest—that “causes
altruism to be dispensed in accordance with predictions from kin selection and
reciprocal altruism theory.” deWaal further proposed that the scientific
community has become polarized between evolutionary biologists on the one side,
and, on the other, a discrete group of economists and anthropologists that “has
invested heavily in the idea of strong reciprocity,” which demands
discontinuity between humans and all other animals.

“One of the most
striking consequences of the study of animal behavior,” says anthropologist
Robert Sapolsky, “is the rethinking … of what it is to be human.” He notes
that, “a number of realms, traditionally thought to define our humanity, have
now been shown to be shared, at least partially, with nonhuman species.”
(Sapolsky 2006). This makes some of us uncomfortable. To some, it threatens to
make us less special. The corollary is that this demonstrates that we possess
intrinsic virtue, not something “painted” on through cultural teaching or
diligent personal effort. Of course, it also means that all other beings
possess intrinsic value too. In the final analysis, what we generally “know” is
colored by what we believe and want to continue believing.

Universal Altruism and Gaia

What
does all this mean? Does the very existence of altruism demonstrate the connectivity
of all life on Earth. Let’s not stop there. Does the grace of altruism reflect
a fractal cosmos imbued with meaning and intent? Was it the grace of altruism
that allowed it all to happen in the first place? Don’t we all come from grace?

Despite struggles
with acceptance for some of us, we are emerging enlightened to the fractal existence
of grace and altruism embedded in the very nature and intentions of our
universe.

I come full
circle to my book Darwin’s Paradox, a tale of fractal intelligence and universal
cooperation. A tale of emerging awareness of Self and Other as One…Evolution
through cooperation… Creative DNA…Manifestation through thought and
intent…Self-organization and synchronicity…A hero’s journey…and coming Home…

In this season of
gratitude, we celebrate altruism in giving and in receiving
graciously.

Atwood, Margaret. 2009. "Dept: Not Just A Four Letter Word". Zoomer. March, 2009 (www.zoomermag.com)Centre
for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, Stanford School of
Medicine: http://ccare.stanford.edu

Nina Munteanu is an
ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and
essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the
University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.

About Nina

I'm The Alien Next Door. I'm an ecologist and a published author of several novels, articles and reviews. I teach writing at George Brown College and UofT. I also coach writers. For more on writing (articles and advice) and more information about my coaching, visit me at Nina Munteanu Writing Coach. Visit Nina Munteanu Writer for more about my own writing. My new site The Meaning of Water is devoted to our precious water and brings my interest as an ecologist and limnologist to help understand the meaning and importance of this precious and mysterious element. Inside, you'll find articles that explore what water is and its meaning to this planet and to us as a species and life form.